“Me and you/Rendezvous”
[Video][Website]
[6.57]
Patrick St. Michel: As far as mythological tricksters go, Drake is pretty tame. When he finds a song he wants to bring into his orbit, he guarantees instant attention and “buzz” in exchange for a remix of said track that is about half as good as the original. So it was with “Versace,” and so it is with “Club Going Up on a Tuesday.” The Drake-assisted version is a drop in quality…and a very unnecessary two minutes longer…but if it allows ILoveMakonnen’s to get attention, it’s worth it. Weirdly enough, “Tuesday” resembles Drake circa Thank Me Later, his most interesting period, as its just the right mix of celebration and ennui. Metro Boomin’s haze helps drive the feeling in deep, the whole song always feeling a little reserved about its success. And for all of Makonnen’s boasts, he doesn’t shy away from what he’s had to sacrifice – dude has to party on the shittiest night of the week because he’s working otherwise. But ultimately, he’s still embracing being able to do even that, and that joy is palpable.
[10]
Micha Cavaseno: Makonnen, or ILoveMakonnen as he’s traditionally known by, is someone you can’t trust. His flat, baleful vocals, only somehow processed into more of a warble by the auto-tune, aren’t even sharp enough to irritate in needle-like precision. Instead they become puffs of unnecessary second hand smoke blown into your face. More fascinating is the inadequacy of his recent batch of crossover songs. Produced by current hitmakers such as DJ Spinz, TM88, Metro Boomin & Sonny Digital (the latter two responsible for this particular slab of failure), they offer cheap, meager takes on auto-tuned balladry that just… suck. I’m not mincing words about this, this shit is weak Imeem fodder of days past. But his self-produced early records like “Sneaky Lady” or “Living On The South Side” show an eccentric almost Liberace-resembling take on Atlanta. To summarize: I don’t care about what Drake says, this is not the one.
[3]
Megan Harrington: Sometimes I’ll be folding laundry or grabbing my lunch from the fridge or flopping on my bed after work and I’ll burst into whisper-song, a celebratory “got the club going up/ On a Tuesday.” Those lines are so powerful, so entrancing, so effortlessly appropriate.
[10]
Cédric Le Merrer: Sounds like a self conscious Vice thinkpiece on how hipsterism is the fetishizing of late capitalism class and technology anxieties interspersed with fake autobiographical anecdotes about drugs. Or like the mean stupid things your ‘friends’ post on your Secret feed. It’s vaguely fascinating in a nauseating way -not exactly trollgazey but almost.
[3]
Anthony Easton: If you are this bored going to a club on Tuesday, can you and your girl go to a movie, or maybe stay in and stream something from Netflix?
[4]
Crystal Leww: Atlanta has a long, storied tradition of rap weirdos, but 2014 feels especially like the year of the Atlanta rap weirdo. Young Thug’s on the radio every four or five songs, Ca$h Out had a twerk anthem that kinda sounded like a man squawking, and now we have Makonnen, a space prince sent to earth to get your girl dancing in the club on a Tuesday. They are all perfect. They all just want to have a good time. I want to party with all of them.
[8]
Brad Shoup: The hook’s the least essential part for me. He’s talked about his love for rock, and sure enough the verses are all feel and very little classical cleverness: perfectly evoked weariness at the third-shift life and grouchiness about legal obligations. He’s got sighs to string from wall to wall, and Sonny Digital melts an organ in your skull. This is interior music of a kind that’s eluded Drizzy: music that searches the surroundings immediately around the self.
[8]